Saturday, 30 November 2013

The bereaved family of an American boy who was killed in a tornado are drawing comfort from a ghostly image of him they say has appeared in a photograph.

Nicolas McCabe, nine, died when his school was hit by the destructive winds in Oklahoma earlier this year. Six other youngsters were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which had neglected to build a storm shelter due to lack of funds.

Now his father Scott has claimed Nicolas has returned from the dead as a spirit who is watching over his cousin Madison.

Madison (front) with what appears to be a partial apparition in the background.

Scott believes Nicolas appeared in an image of Madison playing with a sparkler during the 4 July celebrations. When family members saw it, their "hair stood up," Scott said.

In the picture a partial apparition of a figure can be seen behind Madison. The two figures in the image appear distinct from each other - with different skin tone and hair.

But doubters online have ascribed the presence of the spectral second figure to the camera shaking when the image was snapped.

Scott McCabe - believes late son was caught on camera

'They can say what they want. I believe. I believe he's watching over us,' said Scott.

McCabe described the moment he believes he set eyes upon his deceased son in the photograph.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," he said. "Nicolas loved the Fourth of July and he loved firecrackers." Speaking of the figure behind the girl, he said: "It's obviously not Madison. It's obvious there are two people there or one person there and one spirit there.

"My brother, when he saw it, he said the hair stood up on his neck. I was in awe. It touched my heart."

Monday, 25 November 2013

The Ancient Ram Inn, in the village of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, is believed to be riddled with up to 20 spectres who torment the paying punters of the 12th century home. Above, owner Caroline Humphries

Welcome to Britain’s most haunted B&B (Bed and Breakfast) - where terrified guests have been left so scared they have even jumped out of the windows.

The Ancient Ram Inn, in the village of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, is believed to be riddled with up to 20 spectres who torment the paying punters of the 12th century home.

Built on an ancient pagan burial ground - and also believed to be the scene of child sacrifices and devil worship - the Cotswolds cottage is haunted by the likes of a murdered young girl called Rosie, a high priestess, and even a male sex demon, known as an incubus.

The strange goings on include a blood-curdling child’s scream, ‘electrified’ wooden beams, and even the touch of an invisible force.

Caroline Humphries, whose family has lived in the Ram Inn for nearly 50 years, said: 'My father won’t go anywhere without his Bible.'

But despite its ghoulish reputation, Ms Humphries is inundated with visitors who are desperate to spend a night in Britain’s spookiest lodgings, which were built in 1145 and costs between £25 and £30 per night.

Past guests have fled from the house in the middle of the night after claiming to have seen furniture flying around the bedrooms, visions of a little girl wandering the hallways, and have even been pushed down onto a bed by a randy incubus.

Is that a ghost on the staircase? The Ram Inn, built in 1145, has long been home to a variety of spooks

Some have leapt from first-floor windows at the back of the property onto a grass slope from a height of a few feet - but no one has been injured as a result.
Now, it is packed out with ghost hunters and horror writers - who are queueing up to spend a night with the demons.

One ghost investigator who visited the house was spooked when a presence pushed up against his back - and felt the wooden beams of the medieval house vibrate and tremble when he grabbed onto them in fear.

A mysterious child’s scream was even captured on video - seconds after a man’s voice is heard to shout: 'Get out!'

Ms Humphries, 51, said: 'When I was a child, I was so scared of the house I used to sleep in a caravan outside.

'It was normal for us to see people running out of the house, screaming in terror.
'Once, I woke up and found a chest of drawers hovering over my bed - before it crashed down the staircase.

'People have told us they’ve seen a high priestess sitting in one of the bedrooms, objects move and spin, and we used to hear the ghosts of murdered children screaming and crying in one of the bedrooms.

'We put some children’s toys in the room for them to play with and they don’t cry as much any more.
'The whole house is absolutely terrifying.'

Ms Humphries father, John, 85, was pulled from his bed by a spirit on the first night the family moved into the home - and after researching the history of the house, he was horrified to discover an ancient burial ground lay beneath.
Video from the Ancient Ram Inn

And years later, while renovating the home, he discovered small bones and daggers under the earth - and believes that children had been sacrificed there to pagan gods years ago.
Ms Humphries added: 'Once we had disturbed one grave, we didn’t want to go digging any further, and we’ve left the house exactly as it stands.

'Paranormal experts love staying here, but we couldn’t carry on running the house as a normal bed and breakfast - it’s just too haunted.

'I don’t think we’ll ever be able to sell the house - no one in their right mind would buy it.
'But after nearly 50 years here, I’ve accepted that we have to live with some unwanted house guests.'

Firstly, I have never met the owners of the `Ancient Ram Inn`, nor have I ever visited it. And in all probability, I never will. Here is why.

The building is certainly very ancient, and the history of the building as an Inn is fascinating.
But is it really as `bad` as they claim?

`A randy male sex demon, known as an incubus`, an unverified alleged `ancient burial ground` that no archaeologist or historian can confirm. Human sacrifice, and a witch being burnt to death. The building `shaking when touched by an investigator`, quite a feat in a stone and timber framed building which should have created some structural damage. Many, many stories and not much else from the owners. And lastly, the many props that have been put into the house to enhance it`s ghostly reputation.

I cannot and will not deny that this place is haunted, but being over 900 years old you would expect some activity, and some fantastic captures on camera, which surprisingly are hard to find.

But regarding the unverifiable claims, and the stories generated by the owner, it is clear to me that this is nothing more than a `Halloween Haunted House` type business, determined to sell beds to get the punters in.

For anyone to claim that all of the legends are true, is simply ridiculous. If you are a serious investigator of the paranormal then you should take all of the claims with a pinch of salt. This place is more for the `thrill seeker`, and in that regard they will certainly get their monies worth, and possibly a few interesting photographs too.

But as Britain`s most haunted house, it is not. Unless you believe everything you read or are being told.

Sunday, 24 November 2013

Here is a video shot at an investigation held at the notoriously haunted, Shanley Hotel in Napanoch, New York.

Screenshot showing the upright tail of a cat crossing
the hotel corridor. (Image from video by Stephen Barcelo)

The video is mostly an interview with the owner, Sal Nicosia who explains more about the cat that haunts.
But watch from 1 minute in. Quite amazing! There is more footage of the activities of my own `ghost cat` below this report.

My own `ghost cat` footage is my former little friend, Shelly who was absolutely devoted to me in life, and in death (she died over a year ago) and periodically she still appears, particularly at night when I am in bed, as sometimes I feel her physically as she walks in spirit across me. It isn`t unpleasant at all, and in many ways is quite reassuring.
Initially she appeared in the form of EVP of a cat purring within my own home. Afterwards, she started to `appear` as more contented purring on outside visits, and on one which was many miles from where she lived with me.
Here is such an example which was shot inside Thetford Forest in Norfolk. Watch from 13:08.

Cat`s are very spiritual creatures, and far more psychic than any human I`ve met. The reason is that their minds are 100% open to spirit, and they don`t suffer the same insecurities that many humans feel when confronted by the paranormal.

Historically, cat`s are linked to the devil, and that primitive fear of them is manifested by drawings and paintings which depict them as `Satan`s familiars`. Indeed many were walled up alive - and sometimes with their kittens, inside houses in a bid to keep the devil from entering the home.

And even in the 21st century, there are still humans that have this fear of these creatures.
I have never seen cat`s as `evil`, instead I have found them to be quite the reverse. However such an opinion in the 17th century could have led to a quick show trial for `witchcraft`, and a slow death by fire.

I have many more examples in my work of my cat`s evp. And here below is another example from my own home.

A sceptical thought was that somehow my camera motor/tape/battery, and indeed anything else was responsible for the purring. However, the argument is actually quite weak as all the activity thus recorded has been on three Hi8 tape DV camcorders. And as I use this equipment professionally, they are all checked and serviced regularly.

Thursday, 21 November 2013

A journey to an unusual medieval building with a bloody past. Once owned as a private chapel to the Bishop of London, the church gained notoriety during the Elizabethan period when the then incumbent Bishop, Edmund `Bloody` Bonner, a hard line catholic, who was thrown into prison by Elizabeth I.

Bonner, was a brute, who tortured Protestants under Mary Tudor and refused loyalty to the new Queen. Bonner died in prison, and his ghost is alleged to haunt the church grounds and that of the former palace, now occupied by Copford Hall.

Even before you enter, there is a reminder at the entrance of a man who was nailed alive to the entrance door.

But despite the tales that regale this site, the most marvellous is that of the angels, in the form of the many fine quality paintings inside the church.

Join me as I take you through this fascinating building and share with you the many wonders that adorn it`s walls.

Copford stands testimony not only to the glorious art of medieval England, but also to it`s rich history too.
In this video, I was not able to record any activity to share, but regardless this building compensates for this well as you will see.

BRADENTON -- The former Manatee River Hotel has had thousands of guests in its 87 years, but some are wondering if a few never checked out.

Yes, Bradenton could have its own haunted hotel. Much of the hotel was gutted during its $21 million renovation to become the Hampton Inn & Suites, to form new rooms and walls. But a new door never stopped a ghost.

The stories can give chills to those who believe, which is why Liz and Ron Reed of the Paranormal Society of Bradenton Florida want to scan the hotel for ghosts and spirits of Bradenton's past.

"My husband and I are dying to get in there," Liz Reed said.

The two have every reason to believe entering the Hampton Inn is like entering the Twilight Zone.

"It's probably more active now that it's renovated because it has been disturbed and has changed things around," Liz Reed said. "Sometimes that can make it more active."

At one time, the hotel at 309 10th St. W. was an assisted living center and retirement center, where at least a few people spent their final seconds on earth, but those spirits might not even be the people who roam the halls at night, Reed said.

"It could be someone who loved the hotel, and their spirit decided to return," she said.

Several recent tales could help support the Reeds' case. Perhaps the spookiest is one from Bradenton Police Sgt. Tony Cerniglia.

While talking to a security guard contracted to watch over the property during the renovation, the guard told him a tile worker noticed something on the fourth floor.

"The tiler was doing tiling and said he looked down a hallway and saw a white female in a white dress at the end of the hallway. He put it on his cellphone and got a good picture of it," he said.

But Cerniglia hasn't seen the photo himself. That's how these stories usually go -- somebody hears it from someone but hasn't experienced it for themselves.

Reed has heard reports that the seventh floor is the most active for ghost activity. So has Dave Gustafson, director of the Bradenton Downtown Development Authority, with people alleging that objects seem to magically rearrange when they return, and it probably wasn't from the housekeeping staff. Gustafson has also heard second-hand stories of accounts of police walking their beat and seeing something strange in the windows while the hotel was boarded up.

Police Chief Michael Radzilowski said he doesn't recall any calls for service to the hotel through the years for paranormal activity. He hasn't seen any ghosts, either.

But it's not seeing the ghosts to detect activity, it's feeling their presence, Liz Reed said.

The couple are equipped with voice recorders, infrared cameras, laser grids and electromagnetic field detectors to see if there is a spirit among them.

The tales, passed on from generation to generation in Bradenton, say Clark Gable, Babe Ruth and Greta Grabo all stopped in at the Manatee River Hotel. Famous gangster Al Capone supposedly once stayed here, too. He did have a place in St. Petersburg and Miami, and Bradenton might have been the best place to stay the night to and from.

When the hotel was being renovated in the mid-2000s, local investor Darrell Reha was making improvements to the building before he wanted to bring condos to the assisted living home.

During that renovation, the contractor found a gun in the penthouse that appeared to be a .38 special revolver, Cerniglia said.

"I guess it was actually initialed A.C., which stood for Al Capone," he said. The contractors also found a guest log with Capone's signature on it, Cerniglia said he was told, but the location of the gun and log book today are unknown. Reha could not be located Wednesday.

A 1992 story about an auction of Capone's belongings said one of the items available was a glass water pitcher with the initials A.C. on it, so having his initials engraved on his belongings isn't out of the question.

Gustafson is not a believer in ghosts, but at least one experience challenged his skepticism. During his honeymoon 20 years ago, he stayed in a slave's quarters in Charleston, S.C., and woke up in the middle of the night and heard chains and people singing.

Maybe those spirits in transition are here, too, in Bradenton, and haunted hotels could be another segment for tourism.

"I think it's another opportunity, and I think it's really cool," he said.

The hotel staff understands the legends, but until they see proof, the stories are open for interpretation.

For what it's worth, the hotel was full during its opening night, and Wednesday morning, staff didn't have any reports of paranormal activity or bumps in the night, says Kelly Ann Dixon, director of sales and marketing for the hotel.

"With its unique and colorful background, there always could be a chance," Dixon said during a recent evening tour of the top floors.

Dixon said the Reeds are welcome to book a room and use their instruments to satisfy their curiosity.

"We welcome everyone as guests," she said.

The chance of seeing ghosts already prompted at least one visitor to stay the night. Nick Walsh, 11, was with his grandmother Mary Walsh at the hotel Tuesday, and was part of the first family to check-in. The 11-year-old said one of the reasons he wanted to come to the historic hotel was because of the stories.

"I heard that there's ghosts," Nick said.

Brian Long, director of development for the hotel's operator, Widewaters Hotels, isn't sure if he should embrace ghost stories at his hotels. Another group wanting to investigate paranormal activity contacted him during the Hampton Inn's construction, but he politely declined.

"I don't know if it's a benefit or a deterrent," Long said. "To a 3-year-old girl, that could be a deterrent."

Has he experienced any ghosts?

"I haven't run into any," Long said. "And if I would, I might not tell you."

It is often discussed that when historic properties are renovated or extended, it generally stirs up more paranormal activity then was possibly seen before. This is an interesting story, and one that I will follow to keep an eye on any `ghostly` activity.

Sunday, 10 November 2013

IT is believed to be Edinburgh’s most haunted pub, with more spooky spectres than there are spirits behind the bar.

Now staff at the Grassmarket White Hart Inn have what they believe is a photo of a troublemaking ghost, captured by a family of Australian tourists.

It shows what staff claim is a ghostly female apparition near the venue’s main bar.

The spooky snap is believed to be a girl in a red dress who haunts the bar, a spectral hand visible at her side.

Such has been the excitement over the image, a ghost-chasing film crew has asked to spend a night locked inside the pub in a bid to capture unmistakable proof of the afterlife on camera.

Inn manager Michael Johnson, a self-proclaimed sceptic, said the couple’s daughter took the holiday snap about eight weeks ago on a night out.

Mr Johnson said he remembers the night well as he had been giving the pleasant couple “jip about the rugby”.

He said: “They were about the second last group to leave and they pulled on my shirt and said ‘look at this’.

“They’d looked through the photos and seen something a bit strange. She pulled it up on us and that’s when I knew it wasn't a hoax. She couldn't have done any computer graphics because she was still in the pub.”

Is this the `Red prostitute` ghost, or a slow shutter?

Mr Johnson said research carried out since the photo’s discovery had uncovered an unverified drawing of a prostitute dressed in red who is believed to have frequented the pub during the 1800s and been killed on the premises.

The White Hart Inn is central Edinburgh’s oldest pub, with the cellar dating back to 1516.

Poet Robert Burns is rumoured to have stayed there on his final visit to the Capital in 1791.

According to popular myth, Edinburgh’s notorious murdering duo William Burke and William Hare are supposed to have enticed several fellow drinkers away from the old pub to kill them at their nearby lodgings before selling the corpses.

Mr Johnson said of unexplained happenings at the inn: “A girl claimed her hair got pulled while she was changing a barrel. We've had a chutney bottle thrown at one of the staff. Two of the girls were working one night and the music stopped. They went downstairs and all the wires had been pulled out.

“We had a guy that came and did an audit and he could hear barrels moving. We've also had complaints about people being downstairs counting money and they could hear people walking upstairs despite the pub being shut.”

Scottish Ghost Adventures, a new production company started by investigator and senior producer Mark Connor, now wants to spend a night at the inn.

Mr Connor said: “Because of where it’s come from with the elderly couple and them being blasé about it, it’s obviously not something that’s been done through Photoshop.

“The most striking thing about the picture is how vibrant it is.

“With the hand being there, we've enlarged that and we can’t see any manipulation.”

Friday, 8 November 2013

Here Chris Halton visits an almost forgotten 13th century Suffolk church which has some amazing medieval wall art, and as you always expect, a little bit of the paranormal too!

Historical background (from CCT website)
`This 13-century flint church, with a Tudor brick-topped tower, is hidden away up a track past one of the oldest houses in England. Behind the altar the walls are alive with Medieval paintings - pick out St Margaret with her dragon and St Catherine with her wheel. The saints are elegant and almost ghostlike, with strange blackened faces from the chemical alteration of the paint over time.. There are also wall plaques to the local Brewse family -- one with the doll-sized figure of John Brewse, kneeling in eternal prayer. `
As always, please like on Youtube if you enjoyed, and please do feel free to comment.
Youtube Link:

Many American children encountered costumed ghosts as they roamed the streets in search of candy and other treats on Halloween. Before bedtime, to avoid nightmares, some parents may try to reassure their kids that ghosts are not real.

But not all of those parents may buy their own reassurances: Nearly one-in-five U.S. adults (18%) say they’ve seen or been in the presence of a ghost, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center survey. An even greater share – 29% – say they have felt in touch with someone who has already died.

Click image to enlarge

Claude Fischer, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, explored Americans’ persisting beliefs in some supernatural phenomena in a recent blog post.

“As we approach Halloween, note that most American adults in the 21st Century say that they believe in life after death and in the devil,” Fischer wrote, citing data from Gallup and other sources. “Over one-third say that they believe in the spirits of the dead coming back; about that many also say they believe in haunted houses.”

Despite the influence of modern secularism and science, he observed, “the magic has not totally gone.”

Does going to church help keep ghosts away? It’s impossible to say, but people who often go to worship services appear to be less likely to say they see ghosts. Just 11% of those who attend religious services at least weekly say they’ve been in the presence of a ghost, while 23% of those who attend services less frequently say they have seen a ghost, the Pew Research survey found.

This is a story I have never told in print for fear that I would sound mad. It is the version of events as I remember them, so that the tale told by another member of my family might differ slightly in order or timing. But it is a true story, none the less. It happened, despite our collective reluctance to admit it, and my reluctance now both to tell it and to own it as mine. And before you ask, no, I don’t believe in ghosts. Only, as I say, this happened.

I was 16 when, one June, my family moved to a lofty Victorian villa in the Midlands: ivy-strewn, hidden behind trees, high-ceilinged and replete with corridors. This sudden gift of space was not before time. When people asked how many siblings I had, I tended to chirp “we are too menny” à la Jude the Obscure, or “we are legion” à la biblical possession. Ours, in fact, was the perfect situation for a horror story: three girls of 16, 15 and nine, a boy of 11 and one of barely four.

To be sure, our new house had a degree of notoriety. Local gossip held that it boasted three “presences”: a woman who stalked the ground floor, an elderly doctor forever racing up its stairs searching for a dying grandson and, in its upper reaches, the victim of an argument that had spilled over into murder. There was even what appeared to be the requisite bloodstain that could not be removed, since covered with carpet.
The more credulous would not step inside it. We were not so naive. And yet, there was something unsettling about our new home, a personality, a sense that we were installing ourselves in a place already occupied. It never felt quite empty. Doors would shut of their own volition, footsteps would sound. It felt as if we were being watched, assessed.

Very soon, this phoney-war period became the subject of nostalgia. For, when the house kicked off, it kicked off in epic style. Every night at 4am, someone – something – would tear up its stairs, rattling, then forcing open, the doors in its wake (all of which required proper turning and thrusting), until it reached my mother’s room, entering in a furious, door-slamming blast. Once – comically, but in ghastly, unequivocal fashion – it even seemed to relieve its excess energy with a few strokes on her rowing machine.

This may sound like nothing, but I cannot tell you the uncanny monotony of its nightly repetitions. We refused to recognise it, of course, being sane, a family of atheists and, above all, British. One night, my furious doctor father, up book-writing in the early hours, bellowed: “Whoever’s charging up and down the stairs, will they stop?”

His wife and children rallied indignant: “Well, it’s not bloody us.”
One night, emboldened by drink, I roared: “Shut the ---- up” and it did, briefly, before recommencing with still more emphatic zeal. (There was a silver lining to this episode: my little sister, then nine, recently alluded to my big-sister bravery with the line: “Hannah shouts at ghosts.”)

Back then, we didn’t use the G-word. In fact, we strove not to use any word at all – not to acknowledge our summer haunting, certainly not to discuss it. And so the house tried harder, with what, I imagine, would be referred to as classic poltergeist activity. We would return home to find the taps turned on full-force, requiring wrenching back into inaction. An oven, on the third floor, would have its rings switched to red hot, making the house’s already airless attics crackle dangerously with heat. After the second time it happened, we had it disconnected. It happened again. (And, believe me, as I write this, I too think it is mad.)

Matters became worse. One night, the boarded-over fireplace in my room ripped open with a clamour. I wrenched my pillow over my ears, telling myself it must be a trapped bird. In the daylight, I investigated. Behind the fireplace, crammed up the chimney, were Victorian newspapers recording the house’s murder. I couldn’t read them.

My mother started behaving oddly – pensive, distracted. We eldest and Nanny Williams, our beloved summer-holiday addition, interrogated her. Finally, she cracked. Waking in the night, she had seen a dead child. This is how she described it – not a ghost, but a dead child dressed in Victorian clothing, visible from the knees up. It had a certain logic: a child appearing to a mother. I became determined not to see any such thing. Sounds could be denied; but sights would be too appalling.

But my mother was not the only person to be so affected. The house’s most oppressive room, overlooking the garden, we still do not venture into. It is colder than the rest of the house, now a repository for our old toys, which adds a certain Gothic element.
Back then, however, my four-year-old brother occupied it. Like all youngest offspring, he was a golden child: charming, vivacious. That summer he changed: rendered quiet, hollow-eyed, with the air of a tiny old man. Asked why he was so exhausted as he sat yawning one morning, he answered: “Every night, it’s the same: the lady with the big bottom [a bustle? I wonder] and the two men fighting over my bed, then one man hurts the other and the lady screams.” From then on, he slept in my mother’s room.

My grandmother bedded down there next, innocent of that summer’s events, then refused to ever again. My mother braved it to prove her wrong. Next morning, the room was locked. When we quizzed her, she refused to divulge what had happened, saying only that it was “something to do with time”. Somehow this was – and remains – the most horrifying thing I had ever heard.

Still, the part of the narrative that brings most fear to the few friends in whom I’ve confided it is this. One bright August day, drinking tea in the kitchen, we elders – me, my sister, Nanny and mother – finally admitted that something was happening. We laughed and teased each other but, my God, it was a relief.
Suddenly, a mirror sprang off the wall and shattered. On the back of its glass, in an old-fashioned script, the numbers 666 were repeatedly etched, along with the message: “I’m going to ------- kill you all.” I know you won’t believe this – I don’t believe it. But it happened.

Like you, I am wary of ghost stories: their linear march and relentless building to a crescendo. This is a story with no denouement. Over time, a year or two, events gradually petered out. Again, I am told that this is standard form: ghosts (I can barely type the word) act up with newcomers, then they – and you – adjust. Plus, I like to think that Bettses are far more terrifying.

Today, I love my parents’ house with its greenery and servants’ bells. It is our home. Yet still it has the capacity to act up. Our neighbour’s new cleaner recently informed him that she would not be returning, having seen a woman walk through a wall (our buildings were once joined). On another occasion, one brother’s girlfriend remarked that everything in her room had shaken at 4am. Was there some sort of quake?
“Some sort of quake,” we replied.